939
notebooks from January-February 1840, which are
preserved in the collections of the Library of Congress,
of his lessons and continued experiments with the
medium in a glass enclosure on the roof of his univer-
sity. Through weekly entries, sketches, and charts of
carefully inventoried plates, he described his trial and
error methods to properly acidize, clean, and iodize
the plates, as well as, most importantly, to master the
correct exposure time given available light to produce
a clear image. By mid-January, Morse had discharged
Gourard, whom he felt provided inadequate, outdated
instruction and began to more actively collaborate with
university colleague, chemist, and daguerreian, John
Draper, who had calculated the proper chemical focal
measurement needed for successful exposures. Within
weeks, through continual trials of variant exposure
times using Draper’s focal calculation and with equip-
ment designed by George Prosch, Morse overcame his
“imperfect” results and produced a superb plate of City
Hall in early February. By the fall, his quest to quickly
expose focused portraits was fi nally fulfi lled when he
perfected a fi ve-lens system developed by Draper. The
system of corrected and concave lens allowed Morse
to decrease the focal length and exposure time and still
produce a distinct image using indirect sunlight. As a
result, Morse reported to Draper in November 1840
that he was able to photograph an indoor portrait within
fi ve seconds.
During the same period ,Morse and Gouraud started a
long public debate about each other’s technical abilities
and professional qualifi cations. Morse emerged from the
feud perceived as the competent daguerreotypist while
Gouraud was seen as the fraud seeking personal fame
and fortune. In 1840 and 1841, his reputation unscathed,
Morse made one of the earliest group portraits, a view of
the Yale reunion class of 1810, and with Draper opened
a commercial portrait studio, advertised as the “Palace
of the Sun on Broadway,” on the roof of the university.
By spring 1841, Draper left the studio and Morse opened
a second facility on the roof of his brothers’ newspaper
building.
As he had with portrait painting, Morse pursued
portrait daguerreotypes as a means to support his career
as an artist. Unlike many of his colleagues, Morse per-
ceived daguerreotypes as “portions of nature herself”
that were to be used in place of artists’ sketches. As an
ally of the medium, he concluded to the National Acad-
emy of Design on 24 April 1840 that the daguerreotype
was a catalyst for a “revolution of art” that would elevate
the artist and the society that viewed his work. Morse
believed that daguerreotypes would lead to his long
desired national American culture. Given this reputa-
tion, Morse quickly became sought after as a mentor
for daguerreotypy and from 1840 to 1841 taught such
prominent future photographers as Mathew Brady,
Anthony Southworth, and Samuel Broadbent. By May
1844, following the successful completion of a telegraph
line between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., Morse
retired as a professional daguerreotypist.
This prophetic artist, however, maintained an associa-
tion with the fi eld until the end of his life. Daguerreotype
portraits of his second wife and daughter from the late
1840s in the collections of the New York Historical
Society suggest that he continued to make daguerreo-
types as a pastime. From 1851 to1852, he profession-
ally endorsed photographer Levi H. Hill in his quest to
be accredited as the inventor of a color photographic
process and he judged photography competitions such
as the Anthony Prize in 1853. The mid-1850s saw cel-
ebrated photographers Mathew Brady and Marcus A.
Root requesting Morse’s views about his pioneer role
in photography. In 1871, he deposited his fi rst camera
with Abraham Bogardus, president of the National
Photographic Association, which was later acquired by
the Smithsonian Institution. According to a July 1871
Photographic Times article, he also donated the “fi rst
daguerreotypes produced in this country” to Vassar Col-
lege, of which he was made a trustee in 1865.
After the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Morse’s tele-
graph patent in 1854, Morse’s monetary woes ended.
Financially secure from the licensing fees of his cel-MORSE, SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE
Morse, Samuel F. B. Portrait of a Young Man.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gilman Collection,
Purchase, W. Bruce and Delaney H. Lundberg Gift, 2005
(2005.100.8) Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.